Merit Badge Murder by Leslie Langtry

girls did the same. And each and every knot was perfect.
    "Who is she?" Kelly asked.
    I shook my head. "I'm starting to think that I really don't know."
    Thirty minutes later we were done. The girls had learned to make about ten different (and in my opinion, scientifically impossible) knots.
    "Okay girls! That's it!" Lana said.
    A chorus of horrified no!s broke out, and the girls swarmed around Lana, hugging her. Two of the Kaitlins burst into tears.
    Lana hugged each and every one of them and immediately after each hug, each girl had a blissed-out look on her face as if she'd been hugged by a pink and glittery princess unicorn.
    "Please stay!"
    "I don't want to go home!"
    "I love you Miss Lana!"
    This was ridiculous. And embarrassing. The girls acted as if being parted from the Russian spy was like being sentenced to cleaning their rooms with their tongues. Kelly and I were faced with sobbing second-graders. No way I wanted their parents picking them up like this. Some of the dads were openly sobbing.
    "How about a game then?" Lana asked. As if by magic, the tears dried up, and quivering lips were replaced by huge smiles.
    "She knows games too?" Kelly whispered. I just shrugged. I hoped she knew more games than The Slutty Nurse and the Naughty Russian Prime Minister.
    Lana organized the girls into what I can only think of as the ultimately safe Red Rover. The girls formed two rows facing each other, their hands in front of them, palms up. One side huddled with Lana, giggling and whispering. They broke up and resumed their line.
    "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Ava right over!" They broke out in a chorus. Ava ran over and walked up and down the line, gently slapping their hands in a sort of flat, double high-five. At the end of the row, she reversed her hands and slapped up against Hannah's hands and ran for it. Hannah gleefully chased Ava to her line but didn't catch her. She joined Ava's side.
    Lana then huddled with Ava's team. More giggling and whispering. They chose Emily to come over. This went on and on until the parents arrived.
    I can only describe the pickup as the saddest thing I'd ever seen. Yup. Those are the words I'd choose . The saddest thing I'd ever seen . Even for the dads. Maybe especially for the dads. More than one of them had to be chased off. As the last girl was dragged kicking and screaming away, I collapsed onto a picnic table. Kelly plunked down next to me, exhausted.
    Lana, on the other hand, was bouncing around like a balloon filled with Red Bull and zapped with electricity.
    "That was so fun! Wasn't that fun? When do we get to do it again?" she asked all in one stream of words.
    "You're not tired?" I asked. "We've been here four hours. How could you not be tired?"
    Lana just shook her head. Her ponytail bobbed seductively. "No! I love being with the girls! I miss it!"
    Kelly stared at her. "How did do you do that?"
    Lana stopped bouncing and bit her lower lip. "Do what?"
    "That!" Kelly swept her arms around her. "This! How do you make people so happy?" She left off and make women like me so miserable , but it was there, hanging in the air like a small, toxic cloud.
    Lana didn't get her meaning. "I don't know. I just figure, why not be happy all the time. The alternative is to be sad. And I don't like being sad."
    "What experience do you have with sadness?" I asked. It was a legitimate question. I'd only ever seen Lana happy.
    Lana sat down next to Kelly. She took a deep breath, then started her story. "I grew up in a Russian orphanage. It was very sad there. I was able to go to school and be a Girl Scout, but every night I went back to the orphanage. When I turned sixteen, the director gave me fifty rubles and a blanket and sent me out onto the streets. That was my whole life until I met you, Merry." Then she looked up and smiled. "This life is better! Much better!"
    Kelly, my snarky, sarcastic Kelly, the one who never ever lets me get away with anything and who calls me on my stupidity every